About Jay Farrar

• Biography

About Benjamin Gibbard

Editorial Reviews

While Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar have had their share of differences since the acrimonious breakup of Uncle Tupelo, at least they now have one rather remarkable thing in common -- they've both had the opportunity to collaborate with a noted American writer who happened to be dead. In 1998, Tweedy's group Wilco joined forces with Billy Bragg on the album Mermaid Avenue, in which they set a handful of newly discovered poems by Woody Guthrie to music, and now Farrar and Benjamin Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie have released One Fast Move or I'm Gone, a collection of songs created for a documentary film about the fabled Beat-era writer Jack Kerouac and the troubling circumstances that inspired his 1962 novel Big Sur. For One Fast Move or I'm Gone, Farrar has taken passages from Kerouac's book and, with a bit of editing and paraphrasing, set them to original melodies, with Farrar and Gibbard trading off on the lead vocals. Though only a few of the songs actually appear in the movie, Farrar has included twelve tunes on the album, and while they don't quite tell the whole tale of alcoholic excess and spiritual despair Kerouac set down in Big Sur, the songs honor the spirit of the author, if not quite the letter of his original source. Musically, this material follows the same moody, lonesome, and expansive sound that's been Farrar's melodic trademark in his work with Son Volt, and on his solo recordings, and if it hardly matches the swinging be-bop jazz usually associated with the Beats (one lyric cites digging Stan Getz on the hi-fi), the bluesy undertow of this music is a good match for Kerouac's long, unblinking look into the emotional void. But while Farrar's voice is keyed well to the melodies, Gibbard's lighter and more playful tone captures the restless meter of Kerouac's writings much more comfortably than Farrar, who somehow manages to make the words of one of the most distinct literary voices of the 20th century sound like outtakes from Wide Swing Tremolo -- not bad, mind you, but not all that different from his usual work. One Fast Move or I'm Gone might have evoked Jack Kerouac more vividly with other vocalists besides Farrar, but as a composer and producer he's done right by his lyricist, and the results are modest but rewarding. [One Fast Move or I'm Gone was released as a stand-alone album and in a package that paired it with the DVD version of Curt Worden's documentary One Fast Move or I'm Gone: Kerouac's Big Sur. The DVD includes bonus footage of Farrar and Gibbard at work in the studio, and both musicians briefly appear in the feature film, but while the soundtrack seems to have been made a major selling point of the picture, the music and the musicians play a supporting role on screen while interview subjects Tom Waits and Patti Smith are given significantly more screen time. Fans of Farrar and Gibbard may well be interested in having both the film and the music, but the movie will appeal most to folks interested in Kerouac and how his tumultuous life informed his work. The deluxe, limited-edition, box set version also contains a copy of Big Sur and is beautifully packaged.] Mark Deming, All Music Guide

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